The present invention relates to liquid drainage systems, amd more particularly to liquid collection receptacles.
In the past, catheters have been used to drain urine from a patient's bladder. In such a procedure, a distal end of the catheter, such as a Foley catheter, is inserted through the patient's urethra into the bladder, and a retention balloon adjacent the distal end of the catheter is inflated in the bladder to retain the catheter in place. The catheter has a drainage eye adjacent the distal end of the catheter communicating with a drainage lumen extending from the drainage eye to a proximal end of the catheter which remains outside the patient's body during use of the catheter. Accordingly, urine drains from the bladder through the drainage eye and lumen to the proximal end of the catheter after which the urine is collected in a receptacle.
On occasion it is necessary to drain urine directly from one or both of the patient's ureters or kidneys. For example, subsequent to certain ureterotomy procedures a ureteral catheter is passed through the urethra, bladder, and ureterovesicle junction, such that drainage eyes in the ureteral catheter are located upstream from the surgical site, and possibly in the enlarged renal pelvis adjacent the kidney. Urine drains through the drainage eyes and a drainage lumen extending through the ureteral catheter to a proximal end of the catheter outside the patient's body for collection of the urine. Thus, contact of a substantial amount of urine against the surgical site in the ureter is prevented. The Foley catheter is simultaneously used to drain urine passing from the uncatheterized ureter into the bladder and to drain any residual urine from the catheterized ureter which might eventually leak between the catheter and the ureter.
In the event that surgery has been performed on both ureters a second ureteral catheter is placed in the other ureter, and urine drains through both ureteral catheters, while residual urine is drained from the bladder through the Foley catheter, which may also be utilized to stabilize the ureteral catheters. A pair of ureteral catheters may also be used after surgery on the bladder to prevent urine from passing into the bladder. Similiarly, ureteral catheters may be used for both ureters during a partial differential study, where the relative output of urine from both kidneys is determined.